Pictures of Indian life : sketched with the pen from 1852 to 1881

Front matter

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DAi'g

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Preface

My object in publishing in a collective form these Pictures is the same, which induced me to write them at different periods during the last quarter of a century, viz., a sincere love for the people of India, and a desire to interest others in them.

And what other country has such a multiplicity of interests, extending over such long periods; such magnificent rivers and mountains ; such a variety of objects to attract the Antiquarian, the Linguist, the Ethnologist, and the Philanthropist ?

When those, who have spent years in the country have left it for ever, how much they desire to go back for a few days, to clear up some doubt, to ask some question, to talk to some friend in a language never more to be used !

All seems like a dream : the life in the city : the life in the camp ; the vigorous order : the instant obedience ; the constant contemplation of the rising sun in the morning ride ; the villages : the mountainpasses ; the ferry across the noble river.

And above all, the people, those for whom we laboured, and with whom we laboured. The features of many rise to the recollection, but where are they ?

viii PREFACE.

Dead, or grown old : the same fate has happened to those, whom we rewarded, and those whom we punished.

As these lines flow from my pen, the vision rises before me of well-remembered faces, and unforgotten scenery ; and the image of my great master, John Lawrence, stands before me, as I knew him in his prime. I seem again to be in my youth.

" Days of my stirring youth ! I'd freely give,

" Ere this life close, " All the dull days I'm destined yet to live

" For one of those.

" Where shall I now find rapture, that was felt,

" Hours that were spent " In gay and gladsome labour, when I dwelt

If they but love the good and gentle people of India, and learn to win their love, such happiness may stUl be the lot of many, whom Destiny beckons to the East, and all will then be well for British Eule in that country. But if the wall of separation between race and race becomes broader, and the representatives of the State to the people do not care to acc[uaint themselves with the languages, customs, weaknesses, and excellences of the subject nation, it must needs be that our Empire, which is based on opinion, will, like the Empires of other conquering but unsympathetic nations, pass away.

EOBEET OUST.

London, April 1881.

Contents

CHAPTER PACE

I. THE CHKISTIAN CHUIiCII IN INDIA. 1852 I

II. DEATH IN INDIA. 1852 . . . . 14

Index

PAGE 244

Page

E R E A T A.

22, ine

"Ferozshahr "

read

"Firozshalir."

94,

10,

"Brahmins''

"Brahmans."

132,

12,

" Ghillianwala '

"Firozshahr."

154,

4,

"Prajag"

"Pray4g."

161,

28,

"Prajag"

"Prav&g."

161,

24,

"Nish4di"

"Nishada."

162,

16,

"Prajag"

"Prayag."

197,

23,

"Saiud"

"Sayyid."

198, 233,

12, 21,

" Kanakuchwa' " Jypur"

"Kanakaohwa.

"Jaipur."

236, ir,

" Jahalpiir"

"Jabalpur."

241,

12,

"Provisions "

"Provision."

244,

20,

" Hushiarptir "

"Hoshiarpur."

19,

"Hushiarpur "

' ' Hoshiarptir. '

278,

7,

"Marathi"

"Mar&tha."

301,

32,

"states"

" grades."

PICTURES OF INDIAN LIFE.

Chapter I. The Christian Church In India

Chance led my steps one Sunday evening to the door of a Native Christian Church belonging to one of the' Missions at one of the largest towns in India. The bells were chiming from the tower, that sweetest of sounds : the hands of the clock pointed to the hour of five, and the congregation were flocking in at the door, men, .women, and children. There was something soothing in the sight : a dream of the past came over me, of the absent and of home, associated with feelings of religion and purity. My better spirit triumphed ; my engagements were forgotten, and joining the simple crowd, with uncovered head and reverential feelings, I entered.

It had been my lot to sit in the churches, and join in the worship of many branches of the great family of Christians ; in far and distant countries ; in divers and sundry languages : in the cold and formal worship of northern, in the ardent and demonstrative adoration of southern Europe; in the evangelical, devotions of the Eeformed Church of England; in the- dark and unsightly oratories of poor degraded Syria; but, though many years a resident in India, this was the first time that I had joined in the prayers of the chosen few of those millions, whose destinies we govern.

The building was handsome and appropriate. Art and zeal had lent their assistance to the decoration- of the house of God, but with simplicity : there was that, which was sufficiently distinctive from the ornaments of ordinary houses, to recall wandering thoughts to a recollection of the place : but there was nothing calculated to transform the house into a temple, or to lead . weak minds to suppose, that the dead walls constituted' Christ's Church and not the living persons of the congregation. Here, at least, no pride or pomp of circumstance disfigured the equality of the worshippers ; no shining emblems of ephemeral station dishonoured the ■ assembly of the faithful ; the floor sounded to no clank of martial tread ; the sun, as it streamed through the windows, lighted on no dazzling insignia or scarlet trappings : in this assemblage, he, that was the least, was even as the greatest.

I looked down the nave with interest and heartfelt pleasure. According to the custom of Oriental churches the sexes were divided. On the one side were the men and boys of the congregation, on the other the matrons, young women and children. Nearly all . were clothed in white ; the men were bareheaded as well as barefooted, the reason for which I did not understand, such not being the practice of Oriental churches elsewhere, and manifestly inconvenient, and as such to te avoided. The women had their heads decentlycovered in the folds of their scarfs. I saw many sweet expressive Madonna-like faces of women, not fearing, in the simple, confidence of female virtue, to look in the faces of their husbands, their parents, and their acquaintances, proud of the conceded privilege of equality with their helpmates, with hopes for the future dependent- on their own exertions, without the .recollection of a past marked by neglect and degradation. If Christianity has done this alone, restoring the modest blush of innocence to conscious and fearless virtue, it is the Benefactor of our Eace !

But the service has commenced ; a kind hand supplies me with the Book of Life and the Book of Prayer ; and that language, which had hitherto been familiar to me only as an expression of the worst passions of the governed, and the -Eegulations of the Euler, was now for the first time the vehicle to my ears of praise and prayer. Dissociated from their familiar words, which are merely the outward covering of the inward spirit, the moving admonition of the minister, the humble confession of the people, and the absolution, came back to my senses as an old strain of familiar music, long heard, and often from loved and revered lips ; now first fully felt, when ringing from the chords of a new instrument. Many are the languages of men : one the language of God. How is it, that the voices of the children, responding in their deep and ringing chorus (though the words are in- a strange tongue), bring back so truly, so vividly, .forgotten Sabbaths and distant churches ? Is it that there is but one sound for prayer and praise, that human penitence can be expressed but in one tone ? Is it thus that the loud hosannahs of the denizens of the earth will be collected in one joyful chorus at the day of the Second Coming ? I was struck and delighted by the devout and attentive behaviour of the congregation : when two or three are thus joiaed together, He will surely be in the midst of them.

The Psalms and First Lesson were omitted, that the service might not be too long', and at the close of the Second Lesson followed the Sacrament of Infant _ Baptism ; and now I became aware of another feature of order in this well-arranged congregation, which from the position of my seat had hitherto escaped my observation. In front of the font, but with their backs turned towards, and concealed from, the rest of the church, sat with solemn, thoughtful and reverent faces, those in whom the Spirit of God was working for their salvation : they were in but not of our body ; they were candidates, awaiting baptism, when they had passed their ordeal, and by their consistent conduct in the past had given earnests for the future : seated they were in front of the font, the waters of which were to them for a season denied, while they beheld the newborn babe, unconscious of the taint of 'hereditary sin, admitted before their eyes into the covenant, which they were commencing to appreciate. Never till then had I fully recognised, or been sufficiently thankful for, the blessing of being born of a Christian stock, with no fiery ordeal to go through ; no parents, friends, and all to desert for His sake ; no sad, mournful, but beloved and regretted associations of the past to look lingeringly back upon ; no doubtful, scorned and opprobrious future to anticipate. I felt that they had something to wish for, which I had already in possession ; something, for which they paid a great price, but which to me was a birthright ; not the right of being a Briton, but the privilege of being born a Christian.

But great will be their reward. Christian children of Christian parents ! feel for them, and do not in your pride despise the weak and faUing brother ! Two infants were presented to be baptized, their swarthy little faces peeping out of their white garments, and contrasting strangely with the fair hand and face of the minister. Here the white man appeared in his true and proper dignity ; not the extermihator, the stranger, the ruler by a strong arm, the enforcer of arbitrary laws; the one, that is bowed down to, and yet shunned in the streets ; that is openly courted, yet' secretly scoffed at and despised as unclean : here I saw the race of the Saxon bestowing on their subject people a greater skill than the science of arms, a greater miracle than the triumph of manufactures. We are a mighty, strong, and wise people : we have conquered countries unknown to the Eomans ; we have measured the .paths of the heavens with a fardistending radius denied to the Greeks; the achievements of our present surpass the wonders of their past; but here we spontaneously convey to our subjects that treasure, of which they knew not, but which in the midst of our wealth we value the most : that strength, to which they never arrived, but which in the midst of our pride is our greatest glory, the Shame of the Cross, and the Way of Salvation. Who is the lowest in the eyes of the world amidst the congregation ? Upon whom have the doubtful gifts of fortune

PICTURES OF INDIAN LIFE.

fallen thicker ? The priest takes the child of either in his arms, washes away the sins, in which his mother conceived him, and signs him with that sign, of which he ought never to be ashamed.

The sponsors knelt reverently round, and made their answers with feeling. I looked into the hard features of the men, to see if any hidden sign would betray a difference between them and their heathen brethren, any flash of intelligence sparkle from the eye of the mind which had comprehended such truths. (There was none. He that readeth the heart will judge what it is forbidden for man to know.

Then followed the three Collects, the prayer for the Queen, the Eoyal Family, the' Clergy, Palrliament, and all conditions of men ; and I wondered, as 1 saw the lips of the women and girls articulating the words Victoria and Albert, what idea they connected with the names, what strange pictures they had drawn in their simple minds of the royal couple, and the little shahzada : I could almost have wished that the prayer of native copgregations were reserved simply for those in authority over them. '

After the prayers followed a hymn, sang by the congregation to the accompaniment of a harmonium, played by one of the members of the 'Mission: the chant was from the Hindustani hymn-book, possess- ■ ing apparently but slight poetical merit, but well suited to the place, and well sung, showing that the natives of the country have a full appreciation of the system of European music: but while the hosannah was swelling up to the roof-beams frorn these untutored lips, I beheld through the windows, which open down to the ground, the cortege of a wealthy raja sweeping by under the walls of the sacred edifice. I heard the rattle of his equipage, as every screw and bolt gave a music of its own : I could see from the spot, where I stood, this ignorant wretch, this bloated abomination of a man, contemptuously smiling, as the voices of the congregation reached him : I saw the low truckling flatterer leaning over from the back-seat, and with finger pointing to the building, and chuckling laugh, telling, what I knew to be some false scandal, his version of what was going on in the interior. I saw the whole at a glance, and comprehended it ; but busy ' Memory, roused by the incident, bore me back many a century to the upper chamber of Troas, to the school of Tyrannus. I thought of the early Christians at Athens, at Corinth, at Ephesus, and at Eome: thus and thus, as this debased raja now, did then the noble Eoman, the philosophic Greek, great in the power of science and arms, once ride by, lolling in the biga, talking flippantly, or discussing seriously the manners and customs of this new sect, these worshippers in the Catacombs.

"With them was the flatterer . and busy mocker, the sarcastic stoic, the lively atheist, the sycophantic eunuch, to tell ridiculous stories for these good easy men to- believe. I thought of these things, and God forgive me, if I triumphed, when I dwelt on the triumphs of Eevealed Truth, and anticipated new victories. I have seen standing erect the sign of the Cross in the place, where the early Christians fought, after the manner of men, ia the Eoman amphitheatre : I have stood on the Areopagus to contemplate the ruins of the Parthenon, wondering how it looked, when St. Paul spoke of Christ and the" Kesurrection : my voice has rung along the silent shores of Ionia, " Demetrius, surely thy craft is in danger : where is thy Great Diana of the- Ephesians ? " — no sound is heard in reply but the splashing of the waves of the Ocean. Eeturning from the past, in the full confidence of faith, T pondered on what would be the fate of the great and wicked city around me. Will not a day arrive, when that gilded pinnacle shining in the sun will be torn down, and those tapering minarets will be laid low? Will it not be more tolerable for Sodom ■and Gomorrha in the Day of Judgment, thto for this city, in which the Word of God is daily preached. in the streets, in whose ears the bells of this church are ringing weekly warnings for repentance? Will not the men of Nineveh rise up in judgment against them?

But the psalm has been finished, and the sermon commenced; no new-fangled theories, no polemical discussions, no metaphysical distinctions, fell from the lips of the Eeverend Preacher. I heard a father addressing his own children, expounding simple Scripture-narrative with simpler applications. I turned back, and noticed the mouth opened in interest, the neck outstretched to catch each word : I saw children hanging on the familiar notes of the father. " We are told, how Noah in obedience to Divine autliority buUt the ark, how he and his family entered into it and closec^ the door ; how the wicked scoffed and jeered at him : how' at length the rain did descend ; the' fountains of the deep were opened, the wicked utterly destroyed, but those few in the ark saved. This

THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH IN INDIA. g

Church, my brethren, is the Ark; over this wicked city is impending the Deluge : hasten ye in.'' The page of Scripture further on supplies new morals, and fresh consolation. We hear how Abraham, trusting in God, nothing doubting, left his country and kindred, things the nearest and dearest, to go he knew not whither: yet his faith was rewarded. "And ye, my brethren, who have sacrificed the ties of home for His sake, if ye endure to the end, will ye not have your reward also ? " No wide gulf separates the preacher from his hearers : if he propounds a subject interrogatively, the answer appears to burst from the lips of an eager listener, and receives no check. We feel, that one and all have derived instruction from such expositions, and comfort from such counsels. Sincerely we pray, that the words lyiay rest grafted in our hearts, the peace of God on the congregation, as they meekly and reverently disperse to their homes.

And who are the good, the great men, who have wrought this wondrous work ? Whose hands have offered this incense of sweet savour to the Most High ? Who are those, who have taken this new Jerusalem from the Jebusites, and planted this new Canaan in the land of the heathen? Who have kept together these ten righteous, if peradventure for their sake the wicked city may be spared? There sit they,i the shepherds among their flock, the Christian warriors reposing with their armour off after the combat. Ontheir breasts aTe no proud insignia of battles that they have fought, of victories that they have won : but with a good fight they have carried the entrenchments, of 1 The Rev. W. Smith and C. B. Leupolt.

lo PICTURES OF INDIAN -LIFE.

sin and Satan, and have the Cross engraven on their hearts. They have not sat on earthly judgment-seats, they have not collected the tribute. of nations, but they ■will hereafter gather in the full harvest of redeemed souls. They have no precedence given them in mortal assemblies, but their mission is that of . angels to men. They have not attempted to control the selfish contentions arising from man's bad heart, but they have led the redeemed soul to its Saviour.

I never see a Missionary, but. I seem to wish that I were one of them. Are they not to be envied, whose duties in this world lead them to the next, whose zeal in their earthly vocations promotes the work of their own salvation ? They stand among the heathen, as an ensign of what each of us values most: the General represents our victorious arms, the Governor our triumphs of administration, but the Missionary displays our virtues, our patience, our Christian charity : and shall we not be proud of him ? I asked myself, how is it that so few of England's learned and pious sons select this profession. The vision of one man from Macedonia took St. Paul across the Hellespont ; and will no one cross the Indian Ocean for the millions, not in vision, but in reality ? Will no young Augustine spring up to repay the debt of the Occident to the Orient, to bring back the sun to the East ? Had I life to begin again, this would be my choice : the glories and profits of other professions are but as vanity. We have fought battles, which are scarcely known beyond the narrow limit of the echo of the cannon. We have ruled over Provinces, but our fame is forgotten as soon as we are gone. But should we have, saved souls, -a

THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH IN INDIA. ii

long line of Christians will carry back the legends of their family to our era, and entwine our names with the golden thread of grateful thanksgiving. Who remembers the Generals, the Proconsuls of the time of the Ceesars ?, Who remembers not the Apostles ?

Thence glanced my thoughts to the early converts, those who had borne the heat of the day, on whose foreheads I had traced the lines of sorrow and early affliction (for the chain of the world is still dear to us) softened, yet not effaced, by the sweet smile of faith and resignation. Perhaps in the records of this Church will be handed down, as household words, the names of these early saints, who, when Christianity was young, forsook all things for His sake. When far and wide over this beautiful, and to me beloved, land, in village and in town floats the ensign of the Cross amidst a Christian people, then on many a Sabbath evening, when young and old are gathered together for reading and meditation, will their tale be told : old men will point to ruined temples, and tell to wondering ears, how once idolatry existed in this land : soft, tender, womanly cheeks wiU be stained with tears at the sufferings of these St. Stephens ; young, manly hearts will glow in sympathy with the intrepid bravery of the Indian St. Pauls.

We are standing on the threshold of mighty events : perhaps there may be some amongst us who will tarry till He comBS. In the early Christian Church we can trace three stages : the first, when a few obscure men professed an unknown and unappreciated faith, persecuted by fanaticism, and crushed by ignorance. Miracles had long since ceased ; the gift of the Holy

Ghost no longer visibly descended, but the second stage was soon arrived at ; thriving congregations began to appear, in each city, and to maintain their rights, ■with the tacit allowance, if not the sanction, of the Government. "Within three hundred years the Heathen Temple was deserted, and the Cross erected in the market-place.

A few months ago it was my fortunate lot to join in the Protestant worship of a few sincere and sturdy Christians in an upper room at Nazareth : no' preaching was allowed in the streets, no edifices dedicated to worship. There was fear, trembling, and the possibility of oppression and outrage, but for the protection of England; in this we have the first stage before our eyes. In the church, in which I lately stood, I recognised the features of the second stage, the well-ordered congregation, the voice of the preacher in the highways calling loudly to repentance, the modest tower rising up in the outskirts of the town, the bell calling cheerily to prayers; and this under the sceptre of England in India. Thrice happy England ! the extent of your conquests will be forgotten, for those of Jenghis and Timur have perished; but your Missions will never be forgotten, for they wUl have given religion to thousands, and the time wiU come, when the great Idol will be thrown down.

Who would not then be a Missionary, the Great King's messenger, whose treasure is laid up in heaven ? Those, who cannot attain this high office, must give of their abundance or of their pittance, must pray for them, as I did, as I followed the last of the congregation out of the door, thinking^how sad would .be the da;^;, when^^ like Alexander, we had no more countries to , conquer and convert ; how happy it was for us to see so rich a harvest gladdening the heart of the labourer in the vineyard !

The evening was closing, and a drizzling rain falling, as I returned into the outer world, but the picture of what I had seen clung to me, and, had I to choose again, I would be a Missionary.

Banaras, July 1852.

CHAPTEE II.

DEATH IN INDIA.

In the course of the present year death deprived me .of a very dear and valued friend: though dead, his memory stni liveth: , •

I had known him only a few months. Chance had throwil us .together, but friendships, such as link- heart to heart, are of short growth. With some we may live, we may know them for years, yet the treasure-house of the affections has never been unlocked, there has been no sympathetic bond : such was not the case with us : from the first day that we clasped each other's hand, we were friends.

■ He had faults: who has not? I am not describing the achievements of a hero, but of one, who a few weeks' ago moved among us. He had numbered but twenty-one summers ; he "was still in all the glory of youth ; but some portion of maturer wisdom had found its way to his heart. In the days of his youth he remembered his Creator, and honour be to those who had trained up the child in the right way. Honour to those kind and judicious friends, who had guided his steps, and taught him where to place his affections. Verily in his not untimely end they have reaped their reward.

It seems to me still like a dream ; I have scarcely realised his loss. His voice still sounds in my ears ; I see his cheerful face at the board ; I hear pleasurefully, though doubtingly, his enthusiastic plans for the future, his schemes of benevolence, sketched out to embrace a long life. How many a subject did we run over of classic lore or local interest ! How often did we cheat the night of its rest in discussions not unprofitable, inasmuch as they tended back always to one subject, which to him was the paramount thought ! A prophetic intelligence appears to have possessed him, for at one time he was speculating on the future occupation of the blessed, at another repeating thoughtfully the address of Hadrian to his soul. Any instance of sudden death would draw from him serious remark. I knew that he was devout in the reading of the ScriptureSj and have seen hjm kneeling in secret prayer.

All these things now come back upon me. • Many, wise after the event, pretend to have expected his early death, and to have detected signs of decay. I saw them not. I beheld only the youth in his opening prime, the young and strong, who cherished noble longings for the battle of life : no wrinkle of care, no line of sorrow, had marked that smooth cheek ; no languor of Oriental summers, no long nights of feverish Watching, had dimmed that sparkling eye. I saw in him generosity, perhaps exceeding the bounds of prudence, the gay hope fed by flattering fancy, the ambition for distinction, the bright anticipations tor the future ; burning zeal, high principles, and strong determination ; the heart that could plan the good enterprise, the hand that could execute the benevolent action. Years had chilled these feelings in my breast : zeal, ambition, and bright anticipations were all gone, but mindful of an ancient flame, I acknowledged in another the traces of what once had been.

And all this is gone : all struck low in a few brief days. Alas ! how often in the first years of Indian life are the brightest hopes dashed ! How many a noble ' boy falls an untimely victim !

It was in the sickly months that he began to ail; at first there were slight complaints, and unsuccessful remedies. Then the shadows began to close round him ; his nervous temperament aided the approach of the disease ; his cheerful laugh ceased, and he no longer ■went abroad, but was confined to his couch. I will not say, that he feared death, 'but, unused to illness, he anticipated it from the first. He read the Bible as usual, which was always beside him, not seizing it then, as drowning landsmen seize a rope or a spar with unpractised hand, but clasping, as his consolation in sickness,, the Book which had been the charm of the days of his health. His friends talked to him, and strove to cheer him, and tried to shake off the melancholy which had preoccupied him. We spoke of the topics, which once used to please him; the sermons of the Sabbath, which he had been unable to hear, were detailed to him, and discussed as in happier days. The body was weaker, still the intellect was bright. At length his ears grew dull from the effect of medicine ; all interchange of mental thoughts then ceased, and the friend became even as a stranger.

Did I think he was. dying? Did it pass through my mind that • his days were- numbered ? Oh ! had I done so, how woiild I have redoubled my attention to win one smile of thanks ! But my eyes were darkened ; the lamp of hope burnt' brightly, and I knew not what was impending. The fever rose and sank, but the patient sank always ; like the glimmer of the expiring taper, the divine principle of life flashed upwards. All that devoted attention, all that medical skill can do to arrest death was done. He spoke little, he heard nothing. Interest for things of this world seemed to die in hina. The Bible was no longer opened, though always at hand ; even those messengers rf_hope^ those wingfid-. ambasaadSES-^f love, that, mooth^hy m£)nih cheer the exile's heart, remained unopened and uncared for by his side.